Domestic
by Purple.H
Summary: Adam is reeling from the night that Kirsty came over. Warren finds out.
1. Chapter 1

Domestic

Set after episode 21 series 25

Adam sighed, he had had enough of treating teenage fools for one day and Tom, the cricketer was only the second. However today this was enough. He knew in his heart that it wasn't their fault why he was so on edge today, but that knowledge didn't ease the edginess from his over tired body.

He had been awake most of the night, restless. He tried to move about the creaky Victorian house without waking Kirsty, who he had insisted that she stayed the night in his spare bedroom. He had tried all his normal distractions, the Lancet Medical Journal, National Geographic and even Dan Brown's latest novel that he had picked up in the staff room one long Friday night shift. Nothing stopped his rampaging thoughts, turning the evening over and over in his mind. 'What was he suppose to do? Leave her on the street?' he wanted to help Kirsty, truly he did, but he knew that it would end up in tears.

In his experience of domestic violence victims (generally women) stayed with their abuser even after help is given and shelter provided. The odds that Kirsty would go back to Warren were something like 3 out of 4, as there was a child involved. It made him so angry, as he was helpless to protect her. He so desperately wanted to call the police and have Warren arrested but he knew that even if he was arrested, Kirsty wasn't going to press charges and the case would be dropped. Most likely the abuse would get worst. There was nothing he could do for her apart from give support were she would accept it and maybe hope that one day she would decide to leave him.

"Hey doc, can I go yet? I want to get back, so I can finish the nets session." The enthusiastic young cricketer asked from the trolley, cradling his cricket bat between his legs

"Erm," Pulled back from his thoughts Adam looked back at the 17 year old. "Not just yet I need to get an X-Ray just to confirm there's no skull fracture, okay."

"I thought that you said I was fine!" the young man argued, getting frustrated, anxious to return to his training session. Cricket was all the teenager had talked about when Adam was closing the nasty wound above his left eye. Adam hadn't really been listening, too concerned about his own thumping head. He always got headache when he hadn't slept well.

"No, I said I was pretty sure that there was no skull fracture, however we have to make sure." He sighed, pulling off the gloves and rubbing his aching head. "Tom, even if the X- Ray shows that there is no skull fracture, swelling or other brain injury it is important that you rest for at least 24 hours, that means no more training today!" He paused to let his words sink in, knowing all too well that in all probability his advice would not be taken. Tom was staring at his well oiled cricket bat like it was his only friend. "Look, my friend big Mac will be along in a moment to take you to X-Ray. Okay?" Tom nodded, not taking his eyes off the gleaming bat. "Good." Adam turned and walked straight out the cubical.

It wasn't a particularly busy day in the ED, there were just enough patients for everyone to stay mostly focused on work, however life in the Holby ED like so many other emergency departments round the country, it ran on the latest gossip, for most staff it was like their national sport. Today was no different, there was a group of mainly nurses chatting around the computers on the central desk, trying to make it look like they were actually working although really engaged in a detailed chat about latest celebrity break up. Luckily for them Tess the senior nurse hadn't yet spotted the group.

"Tess, another one for X-Ray." He scrawled on Tom's notes and then thrust them into the senior nurse's hand. Tess glared at him for his shortness, opening her month to burst into an admonishment for his rudeness.

"Dr Trueman, I don't..." Tess stopped, it was hopeless shouting after the man, as he stormed out of cubicles. She would catch him later when he was in a better mood.

His head throbbed unforgivably as he made a be-line for the staff room. Quickly he made himself a cup of coffee before grabbing some painkillers from his locker, and heading outside for some fresh air. Adam knew that he was reaching breaking point today. He had noticed that his tolerance for idiots had fallen dramatically since Jessica had left, something that he knew he would have to do something about as in his line of work, 25% of his patients were either lacking in common sense or just plain stupid.

Adam slammed the doors wide open out into the ambulance bay, it was quiet with no sirens to break the unusual peace. No one was around apart from a few staff members quietly smoking in the shelter. He turned left and headed round to the side of the ED. Nobody really ventured round that part of the building as there was nothing but a bit of grass, a tree, and the fire escape that serviced the ward on the second floor. He just needed 20 minutes undisturbed by anyone to ease his headache. He sat down on the bottom step of the metal stairs, placing his coffee cup beside him. The brushed steel of the fire escape step was cold and uncomfortable, but it would do.

He drank his coffee slowly and allowed his thoughts to wander back to the previous night, Kirsty was never going to leave Warren, that he knew. He was so angry, disappointed and frustrated that she had left, although he was glad that she had come at all. He wanted to help, however she had to make the moves, and today she was just another idiot that could not see the wood from the trees. He sighed and reached for his coffee cup. It had to be her decision, he just hoped she would make it soon enough.

Bone snapping pain burst behind his eyes, as his head bounced off the cold steel handrail. Hot coffee splashed violently everywhere. His vision blurred and ears rung. Out of the corner of his eye he watched in slow motion as the cricket bat slam against his face. Instinctively his hands shot up to protect him. Adrenaline exploded into his veins. He pushed himself up and looked for his attacker. Only to be rewarded with a crushing blow to his ribs. He fell forwards onto the wet concrete. Breath left his body as he felt his ribs break. Sliver flecks circled his blurred vision as he looked up at his attacker.

"I know where she was last night!" Spat a voice from above "you're going to pay!" A torrent kicks and punches wildly rained down. The pain of each blow was incredible, instinctively he curled into a ball protecting his face and chest. Blinking he looked for his attacker. His brain slowly processed the image, Warren! He felt foggy and slow. There seemed to be a whirlwind of blows battering him from all directions. Pain exploded in his left hand as the Cricket bat slammed into it. He screamed feeling the bones splinter.

Like adding petrol to a bonfire, rage that had been building all night suddenly exploded inside his head. He launched himself as best he could straight at Warren. Pain disappeared, anger fuelled him. Adam pulled the other man to the floor, pinning him under his weight. The two men struggled, fighting with all they had. Warren was weak and he knew it. A luckily punch finally finished it, as blood poured from Warren's nose.

Adam pulled himself up as best he could, he held on to the metal rail with his uninjured right hand to steady himself.

"I didn't touch your wife." He spat, with all the energy he could manage. "She came to me, for respite and protection from you! And I gave her friendship, nothing more. I looked after her when you should have been!" He gasped for air, dizzy. His ribs were definitely broken as he felt the bones grind together. Anger powered him on. "She still cares you, god knows why, after you beat her half to death."

Warren, lay sprawled on the path, cricket bat still in his hand, breathing heavily, "You!" he screamed at Adam, "you can have that bitch, she's good for nobody!" he shouted, eyes wild with fury "Not now anyway!"

"What does that mean?" Adam stumbled back towards his attacker, blood dripping down his face. "What have you done to her?" Adrenaline shot through his system. "Warren what have you done?" Adam demanded. Warren looked at him with his sick unfeeling eyes. Adam felt cold just looking into his face, he wasn't going to tell him. He turned away holding his left hand protectively against his chest. He needed to find Kirsty as quick as possible, god only knew what Warren was capable of.


	2. Chapter 2

Stumbling Adam moved as fast as possible, needing to get help to find Kirsty. He was a bloody mess, but he felt nothing. The shock of the attack still fresh, sub-consciously he knew it would be a matter of minutes before the pain returned. Focused only on finding help for Kirsty he almost fell thought the entrance doors, determined he headed straight for the central desk.

"Kirsty!" Adam began to shout, but the air caught in his lungs, he gasped out feebly "has anyone seen Kisrty?" he pushed on past the desk, searching though the cubicles "Kirsty!" he coughed.

"Adam, what the hell is going on?" Jay caught up with the bloodied doctor. Adam ignored Jay as he turned looking around the room.

"Has anyone seen Kirsty?" he tried to shout between his short gasps, to the quickly growing number of staff collecting in cubicles. The activity in the area had stopped, the ED staff stood to see what the commotion was. The sight of one of the senior doctors bloody and bruised was shocking. Adam looked awful, his chest heaved with the effort his irregular breathing. His face was a mess of deep purple bruises, a bloody nose and a nasty cut inside the hair line on the right side of his face, dripping blood everywhere, soaking his scrub top.

"I have to find Kirsty!" he looked at the dark haired nurse, concern filled the younger mans eyes.

"Hey, man what's going on?" Jay said in that cool, 'I'm down with the kids' smooth tone he had.

Trying to slow his breathing that came in short, shallow, gasps, Adam looked around at the gathering crowd, hoping to find Kristy's soft face among them. No such luck, the faces all looked stunned. Jay was the closest; he walked up to the battered and bloodied doctor.

"What happened?" Jay asked.

"You need to find Kirsty." He replied with effort, his ribs were killing him. He could feel his strength leave him, as the lack of oxygen was making everything more difficult. He was out of time. The adrenaline was wearing off, and pain returned with vengeance, gasping for breath, panic swelled in his head. He knew what was happening, he could feel it. But the knowledge didn't make it easier. His pleural space was filling with blood or air, collapsing his lung. He closed his eyes hoping he had more strength; he had to go after her!

"Why?" Jay reached for battered doctor; he carefully slipped his arm under Adam right side supporting his weight.

"Because Warren's outside, and I think he finished what he started!" The small crowd of ED staff watched the scene astounded.

"What?" Jay asked completely confused.

"He's been beating her up for years and I think he might have finished the job." He coughed, he needed them to take it seriously. The sound carried and bounced off the walls echoing around the room. There was an awful silence. The room seemed to shrink around Adam he could feel everyone thoughts. He closed his eyes slowly, the realisation of what he had said sunk in. He had not meant to say it, he just need people to do what he asked.

It was Tess that broke the silence first.

"Jay, resus now." She said firmly to the younger nurse. She could see from years of experience Adam was fading and he wasn't going to stay upright for much longer. Adam kept his eyes closed as he allowed Jay to carefully steer him slowly towards resus. He didn't want to see his colleague's faces, and the questions in their eyes, that would form the topic of gossip for the next couple of days.

By the time they reached resus a little party had gathered waiting for him. The assembled team looked sombre as they waited to look after one of their own. Lenny stood not knowing where to look, fidgeting with his usual insecure energy. Zoe was different, calm, practical, and analysing his every move as he walked in, Adam could see she had already made her diagnosis. Tess was also waiting chatting with one of the burley security guards.

"Tess, are you looking for Kirsty?" She looked at him worry evident in her eyes.

"We're looking, we'll find her!" She said confidently. Adam had heard her reassure patients before, he knew that she was lying, she had no idea if they would find her.

Carefully Jay eased him into a seated position on the side of the bed. He didn't want to be there, although he knew he couldn't leave. He could think of a thousand places where he would rather be, but as long as Kirsty was okay, that's all that mattered. That and some very strong painkillers!

Slowly he felt the world close in around him, a slow black wave flowed into the middle of his vision until the world just went black. Far away he felt hands all over him, someone holding his broken hand, touching his stomach, removing his shoes. He felt the oxygen mask placed on his face, and sharp pain as someone stabbed his left wrist with a needle. A voice pulled him out of his daze.

"Adam,... Adam." Zoe rubbed his shoulder to get him to open his eyes. "How are you feeling?" Zoe asked looking down at her patient. His eyes flicked open.

"Lousy." He said as he tried to turn his head to look at the dark haired woman, until he realised that it had been immobilised to protect his neck, just in case.

"Fair one. You dropped your blood pressure a little just then and you are not moving much air on your left side, I think you've got a hemothorax as you have around 3 broken ribs, so we're goin' to put a drain in. but I think you already know that don't you?"

"Yeah, I had figured." He said exhausted, just as Lenny piped up.

"Adam, so what caused the bruising?" Lenny looked down at Adam's chest, which was a picture of purple and black as he opened the chest tube tray.

"It was a Cricket bat." Adam said a best as he could, between gasps.

"Ouch! Hey you ready for this?" Lenny looked down at his friend. "I guess I don't have to tell you this is going to hurt. Jay could you push another 5 of morphine, please." Adam closed his eyes and ready for the pain. He could see himself perform many of these procedures, every cut, every push, no he didn't need to be told how much it was going to hurt.

Nick Jordan practically flew into resus. It was a hive of activity the team prepped one of their own.

"What the hell happened?" he stormed over to Adam's bloodied form, his eyes were closed, his chest rose and fell at an alarming rate. His scrub top had been cut off revealing the full extent of the damage. Mr Jordan shouldn't have asked, he could see it on his friend's chest, the shoe marks mixed with other large bruises.

"He was attacked, by Kristy's husband." Zoe said sombrely as Nick's eyes examined every inch of Adam for other injuries.

"What? Why?" Nick Jordan asked as he turned to face Zoe for the first time since entering the room.

"We don't know, he said that he needed to find Kirsty, because he thought that Warren might have attacked her as well." Jay said as he splinted Adam's broken hand.

"Has anyone seen Kirsty?" Mr Jordan looked around the room, blank faces looked back at him.

"Wow, there's a lot of fluid in here." Lenny exclaimed looking over to Nick and Zoe, as blood poured out from the tube that Lenny had just positioned into Adam's chest cavity. He pulled his stethoscope off his neck positioning it over Adam's lungs. "We have good breath sound both sides." He half shouted across the room with his boyish ways.

"Good Dr Lyons, let's keep it that way please." Nick said tersely to the young doctor.

"Mr Jordan." Tess walked over to the clinical lead, with the security guard following sheepishly. "Mr Jordan, Kirsty was in this morning but hasn't been seen for over an hour. We have called the police, and security are trying to find her. Adam thinks that Warren, her husband, might have hurt her."


	3. Chapter 3

"This is odd. From down here you look quite tall." Adam said tiredly to Zoe who was walking over with his x-rays trying to make light of his frustration for being almost literally tied to the bed. He had been stuck in resus for about 30 minutes, being prodded, poked and patched up. He wanted to be useful, but knowing that the best thing he could do was stay where he was.

"Haha." She said dryly back, she didn't want to take the bait, "I thought you would want to see these?" She held the first X-ray over his still immobile head so that head could see. The swelling around his right eye had grown since he had walked into resus, so much that he could barely see out of it. He tried to study the image in front of him, but with the lack of sight out of his right eye it was difficult for him to pick out the subtleties of the X –ray.

Zoe patiently showed Adam all the films that they had taken. He had been lucky with only 6 bones fractured it could have been a lot worst. His right cheekbone and 3 ribs were most likely to have to be repaired in surgery, but his hand would be okay in plaster.

"I bet you can't wait to get this off" She said as she pulled off the neck collar and other immobilisers around his head. Although the X-rays didn't show any other severe injuries apart from the fractures there were a few areas of concern. "We have got you booked in for a CT in 20 minutes, just to make sure that there is nothing going on in there." She said lifting the head of the trolley.

"Arhh!" he gasped at the shock of the sudden movement jarred his ribs. "A little warning would be nice!" he held his ribs with his good hand with closed eyes.

"Wimp!" She smiled at him, quickly checking his vitals on the monitor before walking over to the work station to make some notes. Jay was sitting writing up labels for some labs before taking them up stairs.

"How is he?" he asked quietly glancing over at Adam, who had his eyes tightly closed.

"To be expected really, Warren really did a number on him."She replied. "Could you do a repeat blood gas and give him 5 mg of morphine if he wants it before you head up to the lab."

"Where is everyone today? You are the first guys we have found!" both her and Jay turned to see Dixie and Jeff wheel in an unconscious patient on a yellow backboard. "Where do you want this one?" Dixie said loudly as steered a white, dark haired male around 40 into the room. The man's light coloured top was covered in blood that had clearly come from his swollen nose. The man was also sporting a rather good black eye and fairly nasty lump the size of an egg stretching from his left ear to his forehead.

"Er Dixie, a second." Zoe walked over swiftly to the pair, pulling them aside.

"Sick bastard!" Dixie exclaimed shocked by the news. "Has anyone found him?" she asked hoping that Warren had been arrested.

"No not yet, just a matter of time though!" Dixie handed her the paperwork for their patient so that they could handover. "What's his story?"Zoe asked looking down at the paperwork.

"Passers-by said that he was walking fast down the street like he was in a hurry but, he tripped over someone's dog and landed on the curb. GCS has been stable at 12, the facial bruises happened before he fell, apparently."Dixie pointed to the dark purple colouring over and around his nose. "No other obvious injuries."

"Okay if you just what to park him over there for now." She pointed to the bay in the corner opposite Adam's. After a quick change over of beds Jeff and Dixie left on another shout leaving Zoe and Jay with both patients.

"Do you want to finish up with Adam, I'll deal with this guy." She pulled the screen around the eggman's bed for a little privacy before starting her initial work up.

"Zoe, arterial gas is 95% the sheet is on his chart. I'm going to take these up and see if we can get an update on Kirsty, back in 10?"

"Okay cheers Jay see you in a bit."She finished the secondary survey as the man started to stir. There was something about him that she thought she recognized, unable to place where she had seen him before she stepped out from the screen to fetch the blood draw equipment.

The man startled awake as she pushed the needle into an exposed vein. "Hey, it okay you're in hospital. Just relax." As the man got his bearings, he realised that he was strapped to the backboard the man started to panic. "Hey! Let me up! Take these off!"

"Whoa!" Zoe stepped back as his arms tried to undo all of the clips "stop, relax you need to keep still in case you have damaged your neck or spine!"

"I don't want it, let me go!" he shouted angrily.

"Look you could have broken your back, neck or fractured your skull. So stay still!"

"Hey, bitch! Get me out of this!" the man had started undoing some of the chest straps and was moving onto the Velcro on the chin strap.

"Sir! calm down! I'll take this off but you will have to sign a form first." The man escalated the attempts at freeing himself. "Sir, Calm Down!" Zoe said firmly. Suddenly he was sitting up ripping his feet out of the bindings. Alarmed Zoe moved away. "You've had a nasty bang to the head you need to be checked out!"

The man lunged at her, grapping her throat. She fought him desperately, but he held on.

"Listen bitch I need to get out of here and you're going to take me." He shouted at her, squeezing hard on her throat. Hot flecks of spit showered her face. He looked around wildly thinking, looking for a way out. Ignoring Zoe's frightened attempts to get free. "Which way?" he growled at Zoe. Suddenly a low siren started from the other side of the room. He shoved her violently back into the white metal and Perspex. Tripping over the wheel of the screen Zoe fell painfully onto the hard tiled floor. The man was forced to let go of her throat as gravity pulled her out of his reach. Leaving Zoe curled on the floor gasping for breath he walked out from behind the white screen in search of the alarm.

Adam, topless and wearing only his jeans, was leaning over the counter on his good side, IVs and chest tubes tangled around his body revealing the struggle he had getting to the panic button on the wall behind him.

"Warren." He said simply looking up at the man walking towards him, relieved that Warren was walking towards him rather that Zoe. Warren's face was pure anger; the blood splatters from his nose extenuated his menacing demeanour. "So, what you going to do now?" Adam asked flatly, looking straight into Warren's eyes. He knew that any second someone was going to come flying through the resus door and with any luck with the Police in tow. The siren continued, going at least a minute. The staff must be low today. Before he had time to make any other clever ideas, Warren's fist connected sharply with his jaw.

"Shit!" he heard Zoe swear from a distance. "Adam, are you with me?" she shouted at him from what seemed like a mile away. He had his eyes tightly shut, he had fallen against the trolley knocking the chest tube, jolting his ribs that were currently screaming at him. "I'm going to need your help! Where the hell is everyone!" she screamed to no one in particular. Begrudgingly Adam opened his eyes to face the scene in front of him. Warren was flat on his back, with a worried looking Zoe kneeling beside Warren's still form breathing for him with an ambu- bag over his nose and mouth.

"What happened?" Adam said weakly. Shifting into a more comfortable position from where he had been toughly propped up in the seated position against his trolley.

"As I saw him go for you I grabbed a sedative that I had drawn up for another patient, he is clearly very allergic to it!" we are going to have to tube him. "I need you to bag him while I get the stuff." Adam nodded. Manvuoering himself into a better position on the floor he took the equipment from her in his good hand. She wasted no time with obs or other drugs preferring to intubate and then administer adrenaline after for speed. Carefully and with a little help from Adam with Cratiod pressure, Warren was intubated and stable. Zoe checked his heart rate, which was dropping going down after the adrenaline.

"Jesus!" Zoe looked at Adam. She was scared, he had never seen her scared.

"You okay?" he croaked.

"I'm okay, you look like death though." She smiled at him, trying to hide her fear. "I'm going to find the cavalry. I'll be 30 seconds, you okay with this again?" She handed the plastic bag that she had been squeezing every couple of seconds to breathe for the unconscious Warren. He took it with his uninjured hand.

"No worries." He said smiling at her it wasn't exactly a hard task. "Go!" He said as he took over rthymetically squeezing the blue plastic balloon. She looked back at Adam, checking he was okay with breathing for Warren, he wasn't looking good he was far too pale. He was definitely bleeding from somewhere, his bp was going to crash, and soon.

He looked down a Warren. So vulnerable, how the tides had turned. He was relying on Adam to ensure that he lived, after all that abuse, all those nasty things that Warren had done to Kirsty. Adam had the ultimate power, Warren's life quite literally in his hands. He could just let him slip away if he wanted. No need for police, courts, Kirsty would be free of him forever. She could never go back. All he would have to do was just stop squeezing, simple.


	4. Chapter 4

The hatred of the man below swelled in his chest, he should stop, as it would do the world a favour. One less abuser in the world, no one would argue that was a bad thing. Yet he didn't stop squeezing the oxygen filled life line in his good hand. He willed himself to stop, but his hand had a mind of its own. He looked down at the pathetic human being whose life he held in his hands, it wasn't worth it. It wasn't worth his concern. Warren was going to go to prison whatever happened. He would not let himself do it, he wanted too but he couldn't. He threw his head back in a wave of frustration and anger. He growled something unrepeatable under his breath.

Warren stirred, the adrenaline had worked. His eyes flicked open. Adam had seen many patients wake up, they all had one thing in common, the scared and confused look in their eyes. Warren was no different however the scared part was a little more diluted. Adam shifted closer so Warren could see him better, the pain of moving caught in his chest. The morphine didn't touch stabbing pain in his ribs.

"Warren, relax you have just had an." he stopped to catch his breath. Switching into doctor mode. "An allergic reaction to one of the drugs that you were given." Quick breath, "lie still." He ordered, Warren ignored the last statement feeling the tube in his throat. "We had to but a tube down." he gasped. "To breathe for you." He could feel with his good hand on the plastic balloon that Warren was trying to breathe by himself. Stretching, Adam carefully disconnected the bag from the tube. Warren took a big gulp of air into his lungs like a diver coming up for air. Adam leaned back against the cupboards. He felt exhausted, his ribs grinded with every painful breath. He closed his eyes, Warren didn't need his help now and he didn't want to look at him. God his ribs hurt.

"Bloody Hell!" Lenny gasped as he burst through the door to see the bizarre scene. Warren was flat out on his back intubation tube in his throat, his wild eyes followed Lenny across the room. Adam slumped with his back to the cupboards pale as sheet, eyes closed, making the tri coloured bruises across his chest look even more grotesque. Blood flowed down from the chest tube insertion site, the bandage soaked, unable to cope with the flow. "Adam, Adam!" Lenny rushed to his friend's side.

Zoe and Jay quickly followed bringing a flood of nurses behind them. Suddenly there was a swarm of activity in the room. Zoe froze watching Lenny check over Adam.

"Zoe, a little help." Jay called softly to her, breaking her thoughts.

"Sure." She walked over to where Jay knelt next to Warren.

* * *

Nick Jordan was fuming it felt like his department was falling apart before his eyes. A nurse missing, a consultant beaten up, another one attacked, the panic buttons failing to work properly. He was angry and he didn't mind who got the full force of it. He had just finished 'talking' with the Head of Security, who had left his office with a face of thunder. Nick offered only an ultimatum, find Kirsty in the next hour or don't return to the hospital the following day. As always the proverbial poop rolled downhill and his team was about to have it laid down thick and fast.

* * *

"Hey, how you doing?" Zoe asked leaning on the side bars of the hospital trolley as she saw his eyes open. She had been sitting on a stool next to Adam's bed filling in paperwork.

"I've had better days." He said half heartily from behind the oxygen mask. "What happened?" He was still groggy.

"A bone splinter from your fractured ribs must have nicked your liver when you fell earlier. We have given you a unit, and drained the area but you'll be heading up stairs pretty soon to repair the damage." Zoe explained. "Warren's been arrested. He's upstairs already, Nick wanted him out the department as soon as possible." Adam nodded, he would have done the same.

"Have they found Kirsty, is she okay?" Zoe shook her head sadly. "Everyone's looking; Big Mac said that Nick chewed out the Head of Security earlier. It won't be long now." She added reassuringly. Adam closed his eyes digesting the information.

"What about you?" Adam asked as he noticed the delicate bruises around Zoe's neck where Warren and grabbed her.

"I'm okay." Zoe smiled weakly.

* * *

He was dozing when someone shook his uninjured shoulder. He wasn't sure how long he had been there. Slowly everything came back in to focus as he recognized the pastel shades of resus.

He turned shakily looking up at who had woken him. Her eyes were wet, silent tears fell freely down her freshly bruised face. Her hair was messy, and her scrubs stained, she looked a mess but relief swelled inside him. She was alive without serious injury.

"Are you okay? Nita?" he asked. His voice rasped in his throat. Gently he became aware of the distinctive smell of petrol, worried he looked closer at Kirsty. Her scrubs were stained with what looked like water marks.

"He wanted me to tell him where I was last night, I tried to tell him I was with one of my other friends, but..." she tailed off. "He didn't believe me." She sniffed wiping the silent tear away from her purple bruised cheek. As she wiped away the tear he noticed the angry red abrasions around her wrists.

"What happened to you? What did he do?" He tried to ask more insistently, but it sounded more like a pathetic cough. He had to know, as the anger started to pump round his veins, he needed to understand what unspeakable thing Warren had done.

"I'm fine, Nita is fine." She said looking at his swollen face. "I just wanted you to know, that we were okay." Abruptly she turned around to walk away. She couldn't look at him anymore, she couldn't stay, too many things had happened.

He reached out to try and stop her "Kirsty!" he gasped "what happened?"

"I'm sorry." she whispered, and hurriedly left resus.

"Kirsty!" he tried to yell after her. He needed to know properly if she was okay, and what had really happened to her. Pulling himself up with his good arm he wanted to follow her, although clearly that was going to have to wait a few days as the blood drained from his head. For the second time that day the room spun.

"Where do you think you're going fella?" Jay who had been sitting quietly at the workstation, moved swiftly across the resus floor, grabbing him just in time to gently ease him back into the pillows fearing that he would do himself more damage.

"I need to know what happened!" he tried to yell, anger flowed out of him. He pushed back against Jay, making a promise to himself; he would finish Warren if the courts didn't provide the appropriate justice.

"Fine if you really want to know, you go after her. You make her drag out the whole story. But answer me this, how does that help either of you? Eh?" Jay glared down at Adam, who was still fighting against his grip. He let go. "What are you going to do then? Find Warren? Beat him like he beat her, I think she has enough problems in her life without you dragging her through more! If she doesn't want to say what happened, that's up to her!" Jay walked away back to his paperwork. Adam lay back, thinking about what Jay had said. He closed his eyes he was livid and completely helpless to protect her from whatever had happened. But in some way he had, in a mixed up and backward he had ensured that Warren was never going to touch her again.

"Hey," He called to Jay, "I don't suppose the police are still here?" Adam asked breathlessly. He was the victim this time, and there was no way Warren was going to get away with this.

The End.


End file.
